Woman Accused Of Slapping A Child On The School Bus Tells Her Story

Updated:
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 4:39 PM EDT

There are new developments in the case of a mother slapping a child on a Broken Arrow school bus. Corisa Otto was in court on Tuesday on a misdemeanor count of assault and battery. Since the incident happened weâ€™ve heard from Broken Arrow schools and police, but not from Otto herself. She tells her side of the story to News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright. She reports Otto has asked for a public defender and will go back to court Wednesday.

Corisa Otto says the night before the incident on the bus the same boy she confronted jumped into her face when she tried to stop him from picking on smaller kids in their apartment complex.

"Evan comes over and is like, â€˜Bring it on. You want to fight?â€™ And, he's using colorful language. He's like â€˜Bring it on, bring it on.â€™ I don't have time for you. Children, in the house now and we walked away," said Otto.

The next morning, she says she was helping the kids take their seats on the bus, as she'd done every day for months, because the kids were unruly.

"That's when I saw Evan punch my 7-year-old in the face, and my 11-year-old pulled his hat off and said, â€˜Leave my brother alone, stop picking on my brother,â€™ and I saw Evan turn around and thought, great, he's going to punch my other kid," said Otto.

She says she was trying to get to the kids as fast as possible when she tripped over a girl named Jade.

"I don't know if I hit him in the back or not, I don't recall hitting him in the back,â€ said Otto. â€œIt could've happened when I fell. I do recall him turning around to look at me. I grabbed his shirt and said if you hit my kid again, I'm going to take you off this bus and punch your face."

The director of communications with the city of Broken Arrow confirms the boy was slapped in the back. He describes it as a hard slap.

Corisa says the state helped her remove a man from her home who had been abusive to her and her children, then told her how to be a better mother.

"For two and a half years, they taught me how to raise my kids and they said protect your kids at all cost."

Otto admits her own children had been kicked off the bus and were given assigned seats behind the driver. She says this incident is a classic case of a kid takes a punch, the victim responds and that's who gets in trouble.

Otto says she was kicked out of her apartment and has been living in a hotel since this happened. She's also been banned from all Broken Arrow schools, so she must rely on friends to take and pick up her five kids each day.